SPOTLIGHT ON...

​Rev. Karyne Richardson

What Does Recovery from Brain Injury Look Like?Sharing the Story of Betsy Bradley & Eileen Hayden

Melissa Stewart introduced me to Eileen at a funding event she was administering for the Ocean Institute Jazz Festival in Dana Point, CA. When she found out that I was a neuroscientist and had non-invasive technology to restore brain function, she began to cry. Her best friend Betsy had suffered a brain aneurysm the previous year, and she had just volunteered to help her recover. The responsibility of how to find help was overwhelming. She had implored Heaven in a personal prayer, and within a day, I somehow appeared on the scene. I was introduced to Betsy and business cards were exchanged. Within a few more days, both Eileen and Betsy came to my office in Laguna Hills, where we began a survey of Betsy’s needs and set goals for her brain-injury recovery. Eileen learned that she could also do prevention for dementia and Alzheimer’s for herself. Her parents had both dealt with dementia and functional degeneration before they passed away. She wanted to know if there was a personal-prevention program for her that would also help her reduce her anxiety and increase her focus. The survey/intake process, which required intensive, 80-minute sessions, five days per week, established specific parameters and goals for both of their SetiSMART™ Method Brain Training programs.

Part I: First Day for Betsy’s Brain Training To my surprise during the first day or two, Betsy showed up with a large soft drink filled with soda pop containing high fructose corn syrup, which is toxic to the brain, because sugar can increase risk for Type-3 diabetes, which can lead to early Alzheimer’s. Establishing clear parameters of foods that need to be taken out of the diet became the first step in achieving the best outcome during the brain training. We began with simple relaxation during the training sessions, and then we reviewed which specific nutrients would be needed in support of the brain’s recovery. The required nutrients included micro-minerals, vitamins (B-vitamins, especially), probiotics for gut microbiome health, and lipids, the healthy fats that help restore the membrane covering of the cells. Favored food choices drew from the wisdom that food is medicine, thus suggesting clean water, ample fresh fruits and vegetables each day, and nourishing and clean sources of protein (either vegetarian or paleo). When we started, it was evident that Betsy required foundational needs, because she could neither drive herself to the Brain Training Center nor do basic tasks for herself at home. Someone needed to help in food preparation and other basic needs like teaching Betsy to do an important self-massage with oils to awaken the natural pharmacy that resides within the skin’s connective tissues. Because of the injury to the soft tissue of her brain, she was not able to maintain an awareness of daily tasks or the memory of which tasks had been completed at home, which included eating adequate food several times a day. During the Brain Training itself at the Institute for Sound Health Center, we actually walked around the office, or sometimes went outside in parks, to provide her body with a better blood flow to the brain during the session. We began to complete a daily 24-hour report form documenting details like sleep patterns, elimination patterns and water intake, and on any given day her emotional volatility or stability was recorded. Both Betsy and Eileen benefited from simply relaxing or going into a deeply relaxed state — possibly even sleep — during the initial days and weeks of training, since both of them were highly stressed and exhausted from the pressure of their lives. After several weeks of foundational brain training, we initiated the additional therapy known as SETI Inner-Change™. Both Eileen and Betsy began journaling their observations of what they experienced in their bodies and minds each day. They were asked to use specific statements in these entries that invited them to ponder their own thoughts and to choose their next steps in life more consciously, like asking “Who Am I?”, “What do I want?”, “How can I serve?”, “What actions do I need to take to move forward in my life?” I suggested that they ask these questions because, as a Certified Chopra Teacher of Ayurveda, I knew that integration of mind and body is also the discovery of the soul’s purpose. It is vital for each of us to claim and declare our reason to be on this Earth at this time in human history.​ Initially, this process brought no direct outward action on Betsy’s part. The global brain injury from the aneurysm took many weeks of intense stimulation during the brain-training sessions to allow her to reconnect physically to herself and again begin to show signs of self-awareness. However, these same activities and journaling questions began to provide an interior motivation in Eileen that moved her forward in her personal life and her business ― she commented that she was noticing a higher degree of motivation to do things, like clean out the garage or address financial details. In short, this therapy was allowing her to take action instead of remaining paralyzed by hesitation, procrastination or the feeling of being stuck. A few weeks into the training, Betsy began to reconnect with herself mentally, emotionally and physically.The concept “Energy follows focus” is appropriate here. The more we focus on actions, intentions, feelings, or desires that we want to unfold in the evolution of our being, the more this therapy helps us gain energy to take action and then to carry out our activities accordingly to accomplish the desired result. Both Eileen and Betsy had been active and successful for 20 years with Alcoholics Anonymous, and they understood the power of consistency by having maintained abstinence from alcohol and having thus gained in wisdom and self-reliance, which we reinforced during the first weeks of brain training, as we focused on the Ayurvedic Seven Principles of Success and the qualities inherent in them. We initiated a seven-day program of Ayurvedic success and Yogic balance. In my records, I noted how the love and compassion and caring that existed between these wonderful women became a part of my own journey as a therapist, as I watched them and supported them during their training therapy. During the last month of the therapy, as we were in the most advanced sound sessions, we evolved a very focused practice for 20–30 minutes after each day’s listening was completed, during which we used the SETI InnerChange™ statements along with the movement of our bodies. We would repeat the phrases with our raised voices, right out loud, declaring who we now were committed to being and incorporating them, literally, into our new, on-board “software belief system.” The spiritual experiences that each of us had by choosing a specific statement, choosing a specific movement, and then incorporating that movement and vocal expression in a group setting (meaning the three of us together), was extremely powerful and supportive of each other’s growth. We had come to trust each other and to trust that nothing in the therapy room would be anything but safe and nurturing. This faith and trust had been established over a period of weeks, and now all integrative protocols worked synergistically to launch the final stages of healing the brain. Many of the statements reinforced the worth of the soul during each healing day of this therapy, which is the evolution of being human.

Part II: Interview with Eileen and Betsy Several months after Eileen and Betsy completed their 90-day SetiSMART™ Brain Training programs, I had the pleasure of interviewing each of them to gather their viewpoins. The following dialogue is excerpted from those conversations:​Karyne: Eileen, could you please share the story of what happened to Betsy, and how you came to help her and then your experience of the SetiSMART™ Brain Training?Eileen: Thank you, yes, this has been an amazing year for both of us! Here’s what I remember from last fall, just a year ago now: When Betsy was out of intensive care, she went to a lesser facility and then to a different hospital. Very soon, they put her into a Rehab facility, so she was just barely learning how to walk, and her cognition skills were still lacking. She was trying hard to speak. Words were starting to come, and she was starting to form some short sentences.​ She had the aneurysm on September 30, 2014, but even at the rehabilitation facility, by Thanksgiving, they wanted her to go home, as long as she could get up and walk, even with a walker. All the Western medicine was pretty much saying she was good to go. She was doing some cognitive and occupational therapy with them for a while, but as soon as she could raise her hands over her head, they said, "Well, you’re good. You don’t really need anything more, and there is really nothing more we can do for you."​ Her mom, who was exhausted by that point, had moved back to Las Vegas, and she still needed a lot of care. There were a lot of other people, but they were also burned out from being at the hospital so much. I was then trying to help her, but there was nothing more that allopathic could do, and it was really frustrating to see the situation of someone who was getting better slowly but felt like she had no more support. I was feeling overwhelmed with how to help her and with what I was supposed to do. Then I met you, Karyne Richardson! When Melissa said what you did, I burst into tears because this was like an answer to my prayers.Karyne: Would you share the story of your relationship with Betsy and the friendship you have had for many years? That is important. This is actually about the healing power of love.Eileen: Betsy is a good friend of mine, whom I met when I first moved to Orange County in 1999, so I’ve known her for quite a few years. We share a similar past. We have shared a program of recovery together. We have been sisters in this program — we’re both members of AA. We’ve shared a lot of fun adventures and had similar challenges in our lives. It was really hard to see her go through something so detrimental to her health and not know where it was going to go from there.Karyne: Besides the 90 minutes of SetiSMART™ Brain Training each day that was personalized for each of you, we also did a program called SETI Inner-Change™, during which we accessed the body’s wisdom, basically to give it a new operating system — a new belief system — that supported a letting go of fear, a letting go of anything that would be emotionally toxic. It’s a form of Psyche-K that was developed by Robert Williams, a Positive Psychologist. Now could you tell me about your experience with SETI Inner-Change™? Is there something ‘off the cuff’ that you want to say here about this integrative therapy?Eileen: It’s miraculous how ‘things’ — I guess I would call them real answers — just show up. Even when you’re not consciously thinking that that’s the issue, all of a sudden, something else will just arise in your awareness! Through SETI Inner-Change™, it was so easy to get the mental blocks cleared. It is just a whole new way of thinking about the problem or — any issue, really.Karyne: So, instead of just thinking that ‘this is the way it is‘ or ’this is the way it is always going to be’ or ‘it’s not going to change — this is something to just suffer through’, there was suddenly a whole different way to look at it. It helped lighten the load of whatever the problem was. We really did create new thoughts that re-programmed our brains during this intensive Brain Entrainment SetiSMART™ Therapy. There is nothing like this integrative program, which combines Brain Training software, brain nutritionals, counseling that includes body movement with vocalizations of positive affirmations for change, and Ayurvedic lifestyle coaching. Some people worry that something mystical or half-magical is going to happen during the brain training. Both of you experienced, in just a few days, that it is a very relaxing and wonderfully beautiful session musically that feels safe and nurturing, but which doesn’t turn you into a wizard! What does occur, day by day, is that this process begins to connect you to You and your body. Thus, your body returns to being under the control of you, your spirit, and your Higher Self, so that you can unfold your life’s journey and take action. One of the main reasons for being stuck is that we are often not fully wired and connected physically because of inflammation, toxic micro-particles in the brain, or, as in Betsy’s case, injury. These real physical issues can be the cause of behaviors and emotions that block us so that we can’t go forward and take positive action in our lives. We either procrastinate, or we have behaviors or relationships, or both, that keep us stuck. And that is simply because all the necessary spiritual parts of us are not connected inside our brains to our physical bodies. This is a physical therapy that uses audio sound pressure directly on the muscles of the inner ear, which then stimulates the growth of nerve endings in the brain. Furthermore, the SetiSMART™ delivery system (by means of specially designed headphones worn during the session) also uses audio sound pressure bursts into the auricular acupuncture points in and around the ears. These points are actually direct portals into the Central Nervous System in the brain. I am bold in stating here that this technology connects our spirit to our physical body. When our bodies are healthy and whole, we are literally an organic receiving station under direction of the Spirit inside us. We become empowered to take action to unfold our life’s purpose. We live in such a toxic world of pesticides, air and water pollution that it’s imperative that we rid ourselves of what no longer serves us, what may be blocking how we are able to think and act. What I felt that last month between the three of us in this room was a great loving space. It led me to decide that I, too, would get involved directly and choose an affirmation for myself as both of you did during the SETI Inner-Change™ sessions. ​ The level at which we were working was enveloping love. Sometimes when the personal affirmations that our bodies had chosen manifested — we were just in awe that our body had chosen that particular affirmation. Sometimes we were jumping up and down, or even crying! I can’t describe how happy we were to realize that the emotional trauma, the dis-ease we were trying to release from the cell memory, was directly answered by this particular statement! We incorporated the new affirmation into our bodies in a physical way, and we could feel that the old belief or emotion had been dissolved and released. In fact, it brought me, as a therapist, to a new level of trust with clients — and new dear friends — that normally I wouldn’t have reached within a therapeutic space. It was the nature of the friendship and the unconditional love in the room that led me to wonder: How deep could we go, if we all did this together? Or how high? In finishing here with your story, Eileen, I would love for you to put into words what you sent me in a text while you were in the midst of your biggest event — where you are normally stressed to the max!

Eileen: I do event management for non-profit groups where we help them with their fund-raising events, primarily auctions. So we are managing registration, taking care of check-ins and check-outs, dealing with the guests, trying to make sure everything goes very smoothly. Something always happens — with staff, with computer networking or equipment, with some problematic person or situation — that is just not going to go smoothly. That’s the nature of the event business! Usually I can look calm on the outside: Many clients have commented, “Oh, you look so calm!” And many times I’m thinking, “Yeah, but you don’t know what’s going on inside!” Because no matter what happens, when something is going radically wrong, you can’t show it to the client. But sometimes inside you’re starting to panic, and begin wondering, “How am I going to get this done? What am I going to do? What am I going to do?” At this event that you asked about, some things were not going the way they needed to go. But I noticed a whole new calm inside me physically, and it was a new level of dealing with the familiar stress. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’m used to the panicky feeling coming up. I was almost like an overseer, able to look down on the problem and stay calm on the inside and know, “Okay, no problem. These are the next indicated steps that I need to take, so I’ll just take them!” instead of feeling a fast heartbeat and thinking, “Okay, I’ve Gotta do this, I’ve Gotta do that!” It was a complete shift in how my body would work with these stress situations, a total shift in how I would normally react. Even though on the outside it probably looked like the same old “No problem!”, inside it felt totally different, because it really did feel like “No big deal; it’ll be fine.” That was wonderful — to be able to feel that calmness in a very highly stressful situation!​Karyne: Would you please share with me your observations of how Betsy’s Brain Training progressed? Eileen: The changes from the beginning—she’s a whole different person! Coming on a daily basis, we don’t always see gradual changes. But, at the end, when you look back, you think, “Wow, how far have we come!” When Betsy first came here, she was excited to come—I think she was just excited to be doing something besides sitting at home on the couch and watching TV. She really hadn’t gotten into working on her computer or reading anymore. It was very low key, very vegetative, which I think was really part of the restorative process, to get rest to a certain extent. But then to see her start to take more pride in herself—her hair and makeup. Her Mom was there and would help her, and it would make such a difference! I’m not the person who should be helping her with that, as you can see! When she first came, her core issue was just having the motivation. I think that when you come that close to dying, you need to find a new connection to who you are in the world and what you are supposed to be doing here, you need to answer for yourself the questions “Why am I here? And what’s my purpose?” That really seemed to come up for her.Karyne: All the SETI Inner-Change™ sentences that dealt with her being able to let go of fears of death came up in the affirmations. That was amazing to me.Eileen: For Betsy finally to have some motivation — it was a rough road. Even getting the mini-trampoline and trying to get her motivated to do that at home was very difficult. She really lacked motivation. I think if she had tried to come on her own, I don’t know how that would have worked. But because I was driving her every day, even if she wasn’t feeling one-hundred percent, it was like, “You’re going to go! You’re going to sit in the chair and relax and put on some headphones, and it’s all going to be good.” But to start to see the changes, the look, like she was awakening inside, that appeared in her eye halfway through the program! Before the start of the program, her coloring was so gray, and her eyes so dull, and her voice had such an “Oh-can-you-help-me” tone. It was always such a gravelly vocal texture, but also an “I-can’t-take-care-of-myself, I-need-you-to-help-me” shakiness and neediness. To see her start to come into her own through the SETI InnerChange™ vocal exercises after each SetiSMART™ Brain Training session, and to say some of the statements, and to access the power of the SETI InnerChange™ statement itself—her owning that, and beginning to speak in a full, expressive voice again, was so powerful. And she began making changes at that point at home. Slowly but surely, she recovered her ability to care for herself. Then she wanted to wear some of the clothes she had before and to have some of her flair come back. The colors she started using were such a change! It was also exciting to go to some of her other doctor appointments when they were doing follow-ups with her MRIs to see what was going on with those veins — and to have them say, “WOW! You’re doing great! There is no regrowth of the blood trying to come out or anything. You are doing 100% better. Well done!” One of Betsy’s main concerns was when she would be able to drive. Her doctor had said that technically she didn’t have a stroke, so her license had never been taken away. But she should really have been thinking about how slow her reaction time had become; fast reaction time is essential to safe driving. Karyne: Physically, the more Betsy would walk during the SetiSMART™ Brain Training, the more blood flow would support her increased healing, day by day. I wanted to encourage her to become more active. The mini-trampoline you purchased at Costco for her supported faster repair physically each day at home. This all contributed to her improving her reaction time for driving. Eileen: The doctor didn’t say it was okay to drive, but as she still had her license… Her Mom and several of us were very afraid to get in the car with her at that time. But by then she felt she was causing too great an imposition on others with everything she would have to request a ride to do. Otherwise, she was homebound! So, when we finished the therapy, she kept asking, “When can I get my license? When can I get my license?” With the doctor not blocking her, she was very active in finding out. Her mom had told her that she was going to have to go to one of the driving schools and have them drive with her to find out if she would be okay to drive. Earlier, I had encouraged Betsy to do some of those fun brain games on the computer, but she was not very active on it. But when it came time to want to get her license and to drive, her motivation really kicked in. She got her computer out, went online and found a driving school and got the guy to come. Now she has her license, and she can drive. It’s amazing! Karyne: How about her work?Eileen: Betsy is back in school now. Part of her schooling is to finish her counseling certification as a therapist. It has been just over a year since she had what she refers to as “her near-fatal aneurysm event.” I know her brother posted a picture of her from her visit to Las Vegas on the anniversary of the The SetiSMART™ Brain Training sessions can be done in a group. In the picture she was sitting at lunch with him just beaming. He couldn’t believe how present she was, from what we all went through, seeing her lying there for two weeks in a coma—it’s just a miracle, it really is!Karyne: It’s called Love. Because you cared enough to ask Source, Light, God, “How can I help?” I look at myself, Eileen, simply as a catalyst to help people to help themselves. I had never gone to an event with Melissa when she said, “Come on, and go to this event with me!” So I went … and met you.Eileen: And that is why I burst into tears when you said what you did. I couldn’t even believe it. It was right there! Karyne: I don’t know who originally said it but, in the long run, we all find out that “The beginning of the journey is Love. The end of the journey is Love. And the journey is Love!” ​Karyne Richardson BEP APP Chief Science Officer Your Health Your Choice Foundation www.YourHealthYourChoice.us Charitable 501 (c) 3 Research & Education Funding the Sound of Success since 1997 Institute for Sound Health & Integrative Medicine www.ISHIM.us 1-866-SETI-ADD